books.google.ca - A grammatical textbook for the Pali language with Burmese and Sinhalese script (alongside the Romanization), this edition offers a combination of the new (2015) and the old (1868), with some eccentric digressions into the Ashokan inscriptions, theories of the history and origins of the language, and...https://books.google.ca/books/about/Mazard_s_Version_of_Mason_s_Pali_Grammar.html?id=mdnvBQAAQBAJ&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareMazard's Version of Mason's Pali Grammar

Mazard's Version of Mason's Pali Grammar

A grammatical textbook for the Pali language with Burmese and Sinhalese script (alongside the Romanization), this edition offers a combination of the new (2015) and the old (1868), with some eccentric digressions into the Ashokan inscriptions, theories of the history and origins of the language, and anecdotes from an era when European archaeology and scholarship were (re-)discovering Theravada Buddhist philosophy.

Mason's approach to the language is based in the ancient grammar of Kaccāyana, and reflects the first (pioneering) attempts of Europeans to explain the language to a western audience (often making comparisons to Latin, Greek and Sanskrit).

This can be used in conjunction with the three other (free!) PDF textbooks for the Pali language available for download (at www.pali.pratyeka.org).

About the author (2014)

Appendix B ("Who was Francis Mason?") provides some biographical information on the 19th century Christian missionary who ended up producing a textbook that is (now) almost exclusively interesting to Buddhists. Mason is credited for pioneering work in a number of languages, including Mon, Karen and Pali.

Eisel Mazard finished this peculiar edition of the book in 2005 (as a sort of by-product of his own study of the language), and his 2015 introduction provides some sketch of how and why this happened. His online presence can be found via www.eisel-mazard.com